Restoration continues at Fort Gratiot Light Station

One of the newest buildings at the Fort Gratiot Light Station County Park will be one of the first to be fully restored.

A contractor recently completed installing 19 replica windows at the former light station equipment building that was built in 1938, said Dennis Delor, special events, marketing and volunteer coordinator for St. Clair County Parks and Recreation.

The former equipment building now serves as a gift shop for the Port Huron Museum, which operates the light station.

"The Friends group decided to donate funds to restore the exterior of the building," Delor said. "What that included was having 19 replica windows made.

"The next step will be to repair the cedar shakes that were on the outside of the building."

The Friends of the St. Clair County Light Station donated $15,000 to fund the restoration of the building. David Brooks, chairman of the group, said the money came from the Blue Water SandFest, which is in its third year.

"We got that after the first year, which just amazed our event managers," he said.

"Our focus is on raising as much money as we can so we can get as much restoration work done up here as we can."

Jennifer Radcliff, vice chairwoman of the Friends group, said the equipment building was built about the same time as the U.S. Coast Guard moved onto the property.

"There was so much going on and there was such a need for equipment that they built what we would call a four-bay garage," she said.

She said Port Huron was one of the most important places on the Great Lakes because all the traffic to and from the upper lakes funnels through the St. Clair River.

"It's an important nut in a really interesting picture of what Port Huron was and what the light station and the lifesaving station became," she said.

Delor said the windows were done using the original 1938 blueprints.

"This is all spec'ed from the originals," he said. "I have a copy from the National Archives of the blueprints from the originals."

He said the contractor, R and D Foglesong Construction of Lakeport, was able to take the measurements from the blueprints and build new windows that fit perfectly. The dormer windows, he said, have rounded tops, which complicated the job.

"The windows were done and the contractor did a fantastic job," Delor said.

Brooks, his wife, Denise, Kathy Duffy, Mino Duffy Kramer and Mark Brochu, director of county parks and recreation, removed the aluminum siding from the building on March 15 and found cedar-shake siding underneath.

"It was kind of a fun project to get your hands dirty and peel back that siding and see what's underneath," Brooks said.

Delor said the shakes will be painted white. The trim around the windows and doors, the doors themselves and a ledger board around the bottom of the building will be painted green.

The interior of the building also was restored with vintage peach-colored paint and tin-shade light fixtures replicating the originals.

Brooks said the work, and the inclusion of the light station as part of Google Street View, is "very exciting.

"It does a lot of things for the area, brings tourism into the area, which is huge ... to have that out there in the social media is just huge," he said.

Brooks said hopefully the painting and other work will be done by the time the museum opens the gift shop and the lighthouse for tours on May 2.

The Friends group also is providing a match of about $27,000 as part of a grant application to the Michigan Lighthouse Assistance Program, Brooks said, to fund a new roof and gutters for the light keepers' duplex at the light station.

The duplex was built in 1874, Delor said, and the total cost of the project will be about $76,000.

He said the improvements are part of a 25-year plan that started when the county took over the property in 2011.

Contact Bob Gross at (810) 989-6263 or rgross@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @RobertGross477.

FYI

FORT GRATIOT LIGHT STATION

•Fort Gratiot Light Station County Park is at 2802 Omar St., Port Huron.

•It is closed for the season but tours for groups of 20 or more are available; go to the Port Huron Museum website at www.phmuseum.org/fort-gratiot-lighthouse/.

•Admission is $7 for adults, seniors and students; $30 for families including two adults and up to four children; children 4 and younger are free.

•The Friends of the Fort Gratiot Light Station are looking for volunteers. Call Stacie Fraley at the museum at (810) 982-0891, ext. 118.

•The third annual Blue Water SandFest will be July 3-5 at Fort Gratiot Light Station County Park. Visit the website at www.bluewatersandfest.com/.